As far-fetched as it might seem, Amazon.com could have scooped up the H-E-B grocery chain instead of Whole Foods Market.

Brittain Ladd, who until February was senior manager of a group within the larger Amazon Fresh and Pantry team, tells CultureMap that while he was working at Amazon, he suggested both H-E-B and Whole Foods as potential acquisition targets for the e-commerce giant. Of course, Amazon is now buying Whole Foods in a deal valued at $13.7 billion as a way to plunge into the brick-and-mortar grocery business.

"I don't know if Amazon executives ever seriously considered buying H-E-B, but all of the executives I spoke to agreed that H-E-B could be a viable acquisition target," says Ladd, who's now a global strategy and supply chain consultant for the grocery industry and other business sectors.